


i'll be here to hold your hand

by thestartoftime



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: AU, F/M, MaKorra, THIS IS MY FIRST MAKORRA AU ACTUALLY YAY ME, also chief beifong is here, brief appearances by bolin and asami but this is all about makorra really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3110627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestartoftime/pseuds/thestartoftime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Mako wants is for his plane to be fixed so he can get back into the sky, the action, and the fighting. That is, until his mechanic makes him think that maybe, life on the ground might not be so awful.</p><p>my gift for my avatar secret santa, lux-astrorum! she asked for a makorra world war two AU, and this is my avatar universe of it. i hope you enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll be here to hold your hand

**Author's Note:**

> i'm basically makorra af and probably will be until death. that's pretty much all you need to know. 
> 
> this is my first makorra AU actually, so please let me know what you think!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Chief, do you know where my plane is?” 

“Hm?”

Mako suppressed a loud groan of annoyance, staying rigid in his salute. 

“I, uh, was wondering where my plane is. And how she’s doing. Chief.” he added quickly.

Chief Beifong swiveled in her chair and looked at Mako for the first time since he had entered her office. Taking a drag from her cigarette, she blew the smoke to the side before speaking.

“Your plane took some pretty bad hits last mission, Officer. She’s in repairs, and I have strict instructions from the mechanics not to bother them while they’re working on her. You’ll just have to be patient and sit tight until she’s back in fighting shape again.”

Mako dropped his salute, looking at his commanding officer pleadingly. 

“But Chief, Bolin and I were really hoping to be able to join the crew thats flying out for another recon mission on Tuesday, and-”

Chief Beifong cut him off with a sharp laugh as she finished her cigarette and ground it under her heel.

“Look kid, there’s no way it’ll be ready by Tuesday. Last time I saw her, wing was nearly hanging off.”

Mako winced. 

“We didn’t mean to run into Fire Nation fighter jets while doing some simple recon it just-”

Beifong held up a hand and Mako fell silent, kicking at the dirt with his boots.

“Listen- if I tell were your plane is so you can go ‘check on it’,” Chief Beifong said, rolling her eyes, “Will you get out of my office? I’ve got a whole brigade to run, and we’ve all got a war to win.”

Mako snapped his salute back into place, nodding eagerly. “Yes Ma’am! I mean, yes Chief Beifong!” 

The older woman rolled her eyes, snapping her fingers and pointing towards the door. “They’re working on her in hangar 13. Now don’t bother me about this again, and don’t tell the mechanics I told you where to find ‘em.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Painted in swirls of gold and Republic City red, The Red Scarf was Mako’s pride and joy, his most prized possession, and certainly much more than a plane to him.

Which might explain why he freaked out when he entered Hangar 13.

The Red Scarf lay propped up on a series of bricks, elevated off the ground a few feet with it’s wheels removed and it’s engine completely pulled out. Walking closer, he saw a pair of legs wearing some of the grimiest overalls he’d ever seen poking out from underneath it, their owner tinkering away at The Red Scarf with what looked like an electric drill, as sparks flew everywhere.

“Hey!” He yelled, but the mechanic must not have been able to hear him, as they just kept working. 

“Um, excuse me sir, but um, this is my plane and I just wanted to make sure she was being taken care of and I was wondering if she might be ready to fly again by-” 

The person working on his plane pushed themselves out from underneath it, and stood up, hands on their hips. Mako backed up nervously, suddenly remembering everything he’d heard about the tempers of the mechanics.

The person reached up and yanked off their welding helmet, and Mako felt his heart still.

Cerulean blue eyes, mocha colored skin and chocolate hair met his amber eyes all at once, and for a second Mako couldn’t even remember his own name.

That was, until she started yelling at him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” The girl (yep, he thought to himself, definitely a girl) yelled, hands clenched into fists at her side. 

“Can’t you see I’m trying to do my job here? I’ve got this rust bucket of a plane to fix, I don’t care who the hell you think you are! Get the fuck out, seriously!” She finished her sentence by throwing her wrench at him, which Mako quickly dodged. 

And just like that, his nerves evaporated. 

“Excuse me?! That so called ‘rust bucket’ happens to be MY plane, so yeah, I care what happens to it!” Mako spluttered back at her. He looked down at her much shorter frame, multiple hairs loose from a messy ponytail and her mouth set out in a contemptuous pout, until he found her name tag. 

“I’d like to speak to whoever is in charge here, Korra!”

A throat was cleared behind him, and Mako whipped around, only to find himself face to face with Asami Sato, the head of Future Industries. She raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him, head cocked. 

“That would be me. How can I help you, solider?”

Mako snapped his heels together and saluted his higher up, speaking to the air above her head. 

“I’m here to check on the progress of my plane, Ma’am. I was hoping she’d be up and running soon and I wanted to see how she was doing, but when I got here, your engineer threw her wrench at me.”

Behind him, he heard Korra mutter something that sounded a lot like “bite me”.

Asami threw her head back and laughed, black hair flowing over her shoulders. 

“Well, that does sound like her. We’re working as hard as we can on your plane, but it took some pretty bad hits. It should be up and running in the next few days- if you give Korra here the chance to work on it.”

Mako flushed and rubbed his neck sheepishly.

“I’m sure we could work something out though, if you’re really that concerned about your plane. How about you come once a day around lunch time to check up on it?”

Mako nodded eagerly. “Thank you so much Ms. Sato!”

Behind him, Korra groaned loudly. “Yeah, thanks a ton.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday is weird. 

Mako brings a bento box with his lunch inside it (pork buns, courtesy of Bolin’s newest cooking kick), and his favorite book to pass the time, but they don’t do much to fix the silence as Korra sits on top of his plane, fixing the gears in the cockpit as he chews his food thoughtfully and watches her. 

The awkward silence continues until he decides to break it, walking over to watch her work. Looking up, she snarls at him before rolling her eyes and getting back to work. 

“So, uh, how’s it going?”

She fixes him with her ocean blue eyes, and Mako raises his hands defensively. 

“I literally only said five words!”

“And yet here I sit, boiling with hate,” Korra answers, but a small smile plays at the edges of her lips and she sighs, pushing some loose strands of hair out of her face as she looks up at him. “It’s going pretty well, actually. Your plane is remarkably resilient.”

Mako nods. 

“Look, I know we got off to a bad start, but I really do appreciate everything you’re doing for me,” he says, and rips off a piece of his pork bun to offer to her. Korra grabs it and pops it into her mouth, grinning at him with full cheeks.

~~~~~~~

**_Tuesday_ **

“Wrench.” 

Mako reaches into Korra’s toolbox, rifling through until he finds the silver instrument. Handing it to her, he leans back against the plane, enjoying the silence, which, unlike yesterday’s isn’t as awkward. 

“Screwdriver.”

He trades her the wrench for the newer tool, and their hands brush as they transfer. His hands shiver at the contact, and he pulls back, craving the feeling despite himself.

Korra pushes herself out from under the Red Scarf, on her face a smile that reminds him of a warm summer day.

“Mako?”

“Yeah?”

“You should come by earlier tomorrow.”

She pushes herself back under plane before he can see her blush, and in turn misses his.

~~~~~~~~~~

**_Wednesday_ **

“So then I said, ‘Looks like you’re having engine trouble. Good thing the United Forces are here.’ ”  
Korra meets his gleeful grin with a deadpan stare.

‘“Oh my god, you are such a dork.”

Mako laughs. “It was a lot cooler in the moment, I swear!”

“Whatever you say, City Boy.”

He smiles softly, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Her mouth is screwed up in a pout as she fastens new wheels back on the old legs of his plane, eyes squinted in concentration. Looking up, she sees him watching her.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

“Oh! Uh, no. Other than oil, I guess.”

Instinctively, his hand reaches out, and he uses his thumb to wipe an oil smear off her cheek, as her eyes meet his for a beat too long. Letting go of her face quickly, Mako determinedly looks anywhere but Korra’s eyes, but he can feel them searing holes in his back.

“I can’t believe you just soccer mom’d me.”

Amber meets blue before they throw their hands back laughing, and Mako’s heart feels lighter than it has in a very long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Thursday_ **

“Yes!” 

Mako looks up from his spot next to Korra, where he’s been sitting and reading out loud to her, at her insistence.

“What?”

She turns to him with a smile that makes his heart soar and laughs in a way that causes his head to do funny things.

“I figured out how to assign dual cockpit navigation locators!”

Mako meets her with a blank stare, and Korra sighs.

“You and Bolin both have flight locators in your cockpits now. That way, you’ll be able to see large missiles coming at you, even from behind. That way, sneak attacks like the one that damaged the plane this time won’t be possible!”

“Korra, that’s amazing! You’re amazing!”

Before he can stop and think about what he’s doing, he presses her into a hug and spins her around, as she throws her head back and giggles.

He sets her down, and their eyes meet. Hesitantly, she slips a hand into his, and squeezes lightly. His lips quirk up, and he returns the pressure firmly, his face flushing with a heat that has everything to do with her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Friday_ **

“I’m done.”

Mako breaks off from their conversation about childhood with a start, looking up. The Red Scarf stands in all her glory, sparkling with newer equipment than before, ready to fly again. 

He knows he should be happy. After all, this is what he’s been waiting for all week, right? But his chest is filled with nothing but disappointment, and he knows why. 

Walking up to Korra, he stares down at his hands as if he’s never seen them before. 

“Korra? Would you like to, uh-”

“Yeah, I’ll go to the spirit festival with you. See you tonight at eight, City Boy.”

As his heart slows from nearly beating out of his chest with nerves, he watches as Korra walks away, hips swaying, and Mako swears this girl is going to be the death of him.


End file.
